It has been claimed that England called on her Indian troops, not
because she expected much assistance from them but to show the
essential unity of the British Empire. The plain truth is, however,
that she needed the troops, needed men at once, needed experienced
soldiers to eke out her small and purely defensive army of regulars.
Volunteers had to be equipped and drilled--a matter of months.
To say that she called to her aid barbarians is absurd. The Ghurkas
are fierce fighters, but carefully disciplined. Compare the lances of
the Indian cavalry regiments and the _kukri_, the Ghurka knife, with
the petrol squirts, hand grenades, aeroplane darts and asphyxiating
bombs of Germany, and call one barbarian to the advantage of the
other! The truth is, of course, that war itself is barbarous.
CHAPTER XXVII
A STRANGE PARTY
The road to Ham turned off the main highway south of Aire. It was a
narrow clay road in unspeakable condition. The car wallowed along.
Once we took a wrong turning and were obliged to go back and start
again.
It was still raining. Indian horsemen beat their way stolidly along
the road. We passed through hamlets where cavalry horses in ruined
stables were scantily protected, where the familiar omnibuses of
London were parked in what appeared to be hundreds.
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